Mizuno Masahiko sat by the edge of a lake, idly skipping rocks into the water. It was a distraction of course, out here away from any towns or people. He preferred it out here. He was always uncomfortable in a drowning world with too much civilization.
It wasn't that he had anything against people doing their best to survive. In fact, he admired them. It was just... depressing. In every world, the pattern was the same. Magic came to the world, and with it the Jungle. The Jungle enhanced the growth of the world's magic just like it did everything else. With higher magic levels came monsters. The monsters grew more and more powerful, year after year, while the people were always reset. Eventually, the monsters outpaced the people, and everyone died.
It was a very simple process, as predictable as watching a rising tide drown someone stuck below the waterline. Masahiko had seen it play out dozens of times before. Starting with his own world, long ago.
That didn't change the fact that watching a man try to desperately save himself from drowning was simply depressing. He couldn't save this civilization. He couldn't even save one or two people from this civilization. They were all dead, just waiting to be finished off by the last monster.
This was slightly different from normal worlds, but not enough to make it truly distinctive. People defeated the Tower challenge sometimes. They reached the top, beat the boss, and won a wish. But they almost always used that wish to leave their overgrown world. They couldn't resurrect their dead people. They couldn't turn back time or burn away the Jungle. All they could do was leave, ascend to one of the higher worlds.
Sometimes worlds won the Tower before their world was overrun. Masahiko liked those worlds. They had a fascinating balance between civilization and the Jungle. Indeed, he had enjoyed the time he spent in this world's sole City, and its smaller villages. But, in the end, everyone drowned under the tide of monsters. The fact that the victors of the Tower had stayed behind was helping this world limp along, but the fact that they had lost almost all of their bloodstones was far worse.
Masahiko gave this world another eighty years or so. Well, that was what he had given it before that dragon had decided he wanted another shot at a Tower. Now, Masahiko could pin down this world's lifespan to the day.
He threw another rock out into the water. He wasn't actually sure this was a lake. Several of the edges were too regular. It could have been a reservoir that was damaged at some point. Regardless, now it was a glittering plane of water as flat as a mirror and as big as a Kyūdō field. The trees of the Jungle towered over it, the smallest three times his height, casting shade across the water.
All around him, his tamed beasts hunted. Even as he threw another rock, his Avian Desert Hunter, an evolved hawk, killed a mid-level rabbit monster. Masahiko received an experience notification that he waved away. Normally [Tamers] only got experience when they personally directed their minions. It could be a frustrating system to learn when you were more used to the other, simpler roles. However, he had an aura that let him see and feel through all his beasts within a large radius. He directed all of them at once, which was enough to earn him experience for everything they did.
Every class role had a trick to it. Something to level it faster and more smoothly. Masahiko liked [Tamers] best for this reason. Most of the others required too much physical labor.
Just as he was considering getting up to find some more dangerous monsters—he suspected there might be a Vespid nest nearby—his mind echoed with a voice that was not his own.
“Mizuno Masahiko,” the dragon boomed inside his mind. “There has been a development.”
Masahiko gritted his teeth against the pain, but his voice managed to be somewhat cheerful when he responded. “How may I serve, Lord Honōnashide?”
The dragon had a dozen names, like all true dragons. Masahiko used the name from his ancient home. It was the name for a dragon without fire. As he understood, originally it had been a disparaging nickname. In this world, the dragon was named Flamebreak. If he had a preference, he had never shared it.
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“I know where the prey have escaped to,” the dragon said. He spoke in Masahiko's own native language with no hint of an accent. “A citystone has been upgraded. South of the Tower, near the end of the valley.”
Masahiko did not ask how Honōnashide had somehow sensed this. The dragon had more techniques and spells than Masahiko could imagine, as well as countless tricks and exploits. Masahiko still didn't even know how the dragon could speak to someone outside his dungeon. It was supposed to be a prison. That did not mean there were no questions, though.
“Is there any more evidence?” he asked. “Your prey are not the only people capable of upgrading a citystone.” You didn't have to be an Enchanter to use runes. There were other classes that learned the basics, and a truly dedicated scholar could ape most of the class features with study. It was one of the reasons Masahiko rarely bothered with the class himself.
“If they have not puzzled it out in eighty years, they will not puzzle it out now,” Honōnashide growled. Masahiko winced again. That voice was like a steel file across his teeth. “The most likely possibility is the girl. Go. Find them. Silence them.”
Masahiko took a deep breath and nodded. “Of course, my lord. Your experience and wisdom are not to be underestimated.” They were actually almost the same age, but Honōnashide was a dragon. Even without the resets, he would always be stronger. “It will take me some time, however.”
He had followed the trail north, to an outpost at the edge of the Jungle. When the trail ended, he had gone further north, assuming that his quarry had simply traveled deeper into the Jungle. There were more ruined cities in the area, so it was a reasonable place to explore for whatever treasures they sought.
Except they weren't here. They had evaded his trackers and gone in the complete opposite direction. He wanted to be angry, but really he was just embarrassed.
Honōnashide grumbled in his mind. “Do not tarry. The longer you wait, the more witnesses you will have to silence.”
Masahiko took a long, deep breath. “Of course, my lord. It will be done.”
He felt the presence withdraw from his mind, then stood. He whistled, and a dozen beasts converged on his location. His hawk, his wolves, his horse, and more. Every beast had been chosen to complement the team and himself as a whole. He had the experience necessary to craft a team that could challenge the Tower itself. Not that he'd be competing with a dragon to do that.
On a whim, he brought up his status screen. He hadn't checked it in a while.
Name: Mizuno Masahiko Race: Human (water-type) Role: Tamer Class: Beastmaster, level 35
Stats: Strength 9, Agility 19, Constitution 5, Perception 6, Power 17, Flexibility 10, Capacity 14, Sensitivity 18
Techniques: 16 Spells: 24 Skills: 8 Would you like to see a full list of your abilities?
He waved away his list of techniques and spells. He kept those at a reasonable rank. That was half the secret of how he had leveled so quickly, so he knew where he stood there. Normally he wouldn't keep a Basic-tier class for so long, but he had to ration his bloodstones on this world.
He climbed atop his Equine Charger. It was smaller than he was used to, like every other animal in this world, but it had a certain stout strength. It would carry him to his destination quickly.
And then he would kill everything he found there.
As his horse charged off at speeds no normal animal could match, he pushed down his pity, his mercy, and his remorse. He reminded himself once again that this was a drowning world. The tide of monsters was rising.
Everyone here was already dead. Nothing he did mattered.
Nothing.